As You Like It, The Opening Night of Shakespeare in the Park

In the lush, green heart of Manhattan, As You Like It’s Forest of Arden came to life last night, opening the fiftieth-anniversary season of the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater. Music started the action, enthralling the alfresco audience as a band of bluegrass musicians struck up tender melodies (composed by America’s supreme Renaissance funnyman, Steve Martin) on guitar, fiddle, and banjo. Instantly they created a mood that suffused the performance. It’s not As You Like It; it’s As You Love It.

For those who would appreciate a refresher, the plot goes something like this: A cruel, usurping duke named Frederick (the sonorous and upright Andre Braugher, who also plays his own banished brother) exiles his niece, Rosalind (a brash and gutsy Lily Rabe), on pain of death. When her cousin and best friend, Celia (Renee Elise Goldsberry, exuding gentler charm), refuses to part with her, the two girls flee together to the forest, Rosalind disguised as a boy named Ganymede. They soon cross paths with a gallant youth named Orlando (the appealing David Furr), with whom Rosalind had precipitously fallen in love just before she—and he—were exiled by fierce Duke Frederick. Orlando has fled not only from the duke, but from his nasty older brother, Oliver (Omar Metwally), who deprived him of his birthright by refusing to pay for his education. Orlando, it turns out, loves Rosalind, too (as the famous phrase goes, “Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”), but alas, dressed as Ganymede, Rosalind cannot be won. Orlando and Rosalind are far from the only ones with love troubles: the clown Touchstone (the brilliant Oliver Platt, whose gift for physical comedy cannot be exaggerated) can’t find a sober preacher to marry him to the bawdy goatherdess Audrey (the uproarious, tap-dancing Donna Lynne Champlin); and the meek shepherd Silvius (the lanky Will Rogers) comes in for mockery from his scornful ladylove, Phoebe (Susannah Flood). Luckily, as someone once said, all’s well that ends well.

At the center of John Lee Beatty’s wondrous set—which resembles a Civil War–era fort in the Appalachian Woods—is a tall, russet-brown log palisade, topped by a watchtower and bordered by tall, slender pines (though artificial, they fool local birds, who perch and warble in the treetops, providing accompaniment to the bluegrass below). Cast members slide down the trees like firemen to make their entrances. Wrestling bouts and fights are convincingly staged by Rick Sordelet; last night (90 degrees in the shade), when young Orlando got a pail of water dumped on him after a tussle with Charles the Wrestler (the mighty Brendan Averett), sighs could be heard from theatergoers who yearned for a splash to arc in their direction. Jane Greenwood’s exquisite costumes nicely delineate the social groups—frock coats and long, striped trousers for gentry, knee breeches and shaggy vests for rustics; gored, long-waisted, patterned gowns for the ladies, and laced stomachers and full, solid-colored skirts for their peasant counterparts. Sublime lighting by Natasha Katz defines each scene; a sunny, emerald green transmits joy as it tints the stage; later, indigo lighting flickers amid tree trunks, casting a cooler spell. Director Daniel Sullivan (who also directed this year’s The Columnist, on Broadway) has integrated all of these elements to make this As You Like It fleet, unforced and funny on multiple levels; making its Elizabethan summer feel curiously contemporary and communicative.

Before the performance, Oskar Eustis, the Public Theater’s artistic director, paid tribute to Joseph Papp, who created Shakespeare in the Park. Papp believed that the public deserved free theater, Eustis told the crowd, but Robert Moses tried to fight him on it. Papp won the day. “Art is not just a commodity that can be purchased, it’s a birthright for all citizens,” Mr. Eustis said, reminding us that Shakespeare’s Orlando is not the only valiant soul who needs his birthright defended.